The Farnesoid-X-receptor (FXR) is a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily of transcription factors. FXR was originally identified as a receptor activated by farnesol, and subsequent studies revealed a major role of FXR as a bile acid receptor (Makishima, M., Okamoto, A. Y., Repa, J. J., Tu, H., Learned, R. M., Luk, A., Hull, M. V., Lustig, K. D., Mangelsdorf, D. J. and Shan, B., Science, 1999, 284, 1362-1365). FXR is expressed in liver, intestine, kidney, and the adrenal gland. Four splice isoforms have been cloned in humans.
Among the major bile acids, chenodeoxycholic acid is the most potent FXR agonist. Binding of bile acids or synthetic ligands to FXR induces the transcriptional expression of small heterodimer partner (SHP), an atypical nuclear receptor family member that binds to several other nuclear hormone receptors, including LRH-1 and LXRalpha and blocks their transcriptional functions (Lu, T. T., Makishima, M., Repa, J. J., Schoonjans, K., Kerr, T. A., Auwerx, J. and Mangelsdorf, D. J., Mol. Cell, 2000, 6, 507-515). CYP7A1 and CYP8B are enzymes involved in hepatic bile acid synthesis. FXR represses their expression via activation of the SHP pathway. FXR directly induces the expression of bile acid-exporting transporters for the ABC family in hepatocytes, including the bile salt export pump (ABCB11) and the multidrug resistance associated protein 2 (ABCC2) (Kast, H. R., Goodwin, B., Tarr, P. T., Jones, S. A., Anisfeld, A. M., Stoltz, C. M., Tontonoz, P., Kliewer, S., Willson, T. M. and Edwards, P. A., J. Biol. Chem., 2002, 277, 2908-2915; Ananthanarayanan, M., Balasubramanian, N., Makishima, M., Mangelsdorf, D. J. and Suchy, F. J., J. Biol. Chem., 2001, 276, 28857-28865). FXR knockout mice have impaired resistance to bile acid-induced hepatotoxicity and synthetic FXR agonists have been shown to be hepatoprotective in animal models of cholestasis (Liu, Y., Binz, J., Numerick, M. J., Dennis, S., Luo, G., Desai, B., MacKenzie, K. I., Mansfield, T. A., Kliewer, S. A., Goodwin, B. and Jones, S. A., J. Clin. Invest., 2003, 112, 1678-1687; Sinal, C. J., Tohkin, M., Miyata, M., Ward, J. M., Lambert, G. and Gonzalez, F. J., Cell, 2000, 102, 731-744). These data show that FXR protects hepatocytes from bile acid toxicity by suppressing both cellular synthesis and import of bile acids and stimulating their biliary excretion.
The process of enterohepatic circulation of bile acids is also a major regulator of serum cholesterol homeostasis. After biosynthesis from cholesterol in the liver, bile acids are secreted with bile into the lumen of the small intestine to aid in the digestion and absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins. The ratio of different bile acids determines their ability to solubilize cholesterol. FXR activation decreases the size and changes the composition of the bile acid pool, decreasing the intestinal solubilization of cholesterol, effectively blocking its absorption. Decreased absorption would be expected to result in lower plasma cholesterol levels. Indeed direct inhibitors of cholesterol absorption such as ezetimibe decrease plasma cholesterol, providing some evidence to support this hypothesis. However ezetimibe has limited efficacy which appears due to feedback upregulation of cholesterol synthesis in cells attempting to compensate for depletion of cholesterol. Recent data have shown that FXR opposes this effect in part by directly repressing the expression of HMGCoA reductase via a pathway involving SHP and LRH1 (Datta, S., Wang, L., Moore, D. D. and Osborne, T. F., J. Biol. Chem., 2006, 281, 807-812). FXR also decreases hepatic synthesis of triglycerides by repressing SREBP1-c expression by an alternate pathway involving SHP and LXRalpha. Thus compounds that activate FXR may show superior therapeutic efficacy on plasma cholesterol and triglyceride lowering than current therapies.
Most patients with coronary artery disease have high plasma levels of atherogenic LDL. The HMGCoA reductase inhibitors (statins) are effective at normalizing LDL-C levels but reduce the risk for cardiovascular events such as stroke and myocardial infarction by only about 30%. Additional therapies targeting further lowering of atherogenic LDL as well as other lipid risk factors such as high plasma triglyceride levels and low HDL-C levels are needed.
A high proportion of type 2 diabetic patients in the United States have abnormal concentrations of plasma lipoproteins. The prevalence of total cholesterol>240 mg/dl is 37% in diabetic men and 44% in diabetic women and the prevalence for LDL-C>160 mg/dl are 31% and 44%, respectively in these populations. Diabetes is a disease in which a patient's ability to control glucose levels in blood is decreased because of partial impairment in the response to insulin. Type II diabetes (T2D), also called non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), accounts for 80-90% of all diabetes cases in developed countries. In T2D, the pancreatic Islets of Langerhans produce insulin but the primary target tissues (muscle, liver and adipose tissue) develop a profound resistance to its effects. The body compensates by producing more insulin ultimately resulting in failure of pancreatic insulin-producing capacity. Thus T2D is a cardiovascular-metabolic syndrome associated with multiple comorbidities including dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, as well as hypertension, endothelial dysfunction and inflammatory atherosclerosis.
The first line treatment for dyslipidemia and diabetes is a low-fat and low-glucose diet, exercise and weight loss. Compliance can be moderate and treatment of the various metabolic deficiencies that develop becomes necessary with, for example, lipid-modulating agents such as statins and fibrates, hypoglycemic drugs such as sulfonylureas and metformin, or insulin sensitizers of the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of PPARgamma-agonists. Recent studies provide evidence that modulators of FXR may have enhanced therapeutic potential by providing superior normalization of both LDL-C and triglyceride levels, currently achieved only with combinations of existing drugs and, in addition, may avoid feedback effects on cellular cholesterol homeostasis.